The strange scene in which the two leading riders were taken out within yards of the finish line. One of them ran across the line first but still didn't win.
They were both so close to the gold and silver medals they practically had them in their luggage and were on their way home.
But for Ukrainian rider Yehor Dementyev and Australian Alistair Donohoe, the Rio dream turned to a nightmare less than 25 metres from the finish line of their road race in Rio yesterday.
The C4-C5 event had already witnessed a bad crash that saw a group of riders fall heavily and one of them - Bahman Golbarnezhad from Iran - would very sadly lose his life.
But while reports were coming through that the Iranian was very badly injured, when the medals were being decided nobody in Rio knew the outcome of his crash and the race proceeded to a conclusion.
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Dementyev and Donohoe were battling it out in a two-up sprint for gold and silver with Daniel Abraham Gebru of the Netherlands behind them. He was well out of the battle for gold and had clearly settled for bronze.
But when Dementyev took the initiative and Donohoe tried to come around him in the kick to the line the Ukrainian was having none of it and clearly unfairly impeded the Australian.
The result was that both crashed, with their Dutch rival coming from behind them to win.
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UNBELIEVABLE-Gebru wins #Olympics Road Race C4-5 after the 2 leaders crash just before the finish (Via @citrus_pers) pic.twitter.com/ZRXFzhSaT1
— CyclingHub (@CyclingHubTV) September 17, 2016
Donohoe had quickly jumped to his feet and ran across the finish line, appearing to cross it just before Gebru.
However, he did not have his bike with him – it was still on the tarmac – and so his finishing position didn’t count.
And to make matters even worse, not only did Gebru win but two other riders came from even further back to claim silver and bronze; Brazil’s Lauro Cesar Chaman and Italy’s Andrea Tarlao finishing 38 seconds down on the winner.
Another extraordinary twist to the story was that the winner and new Paralympic champion Gebru was until recently a stateless refugee.
Originally from Eritrea, he moved to Holland 16 years ago but only got a Dutch passport 18 months ago, which enabled the 31-year-old compete at these Games for the Netherlands.
Dementyev was disqualified for his sprint that took down himself and Donohoe, with the Australian eventually finishing with his bike in 5th place.
Donohoe had won silver medals – in both the individual pursuit and the road TT – earlier in the Games. But the 21-year-old surely would have added gold to that tally had he gotten a clear run at the finish line yesterday.
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